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HomeMy WebLinkAbout092524 email - LTAC memo and letter from Commissioner DeanALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them. Greetings I believe diverting Lodging Tax Funds to support a municipal pool is a waste of Lodging Tax Funds. Here’s why: * The purpose of Lodging Tax Funds is * To promote tourism * To generate additional Lodging Tax revenues by means of overnight stays in hotels, motels, and B&Bs. * Tourism is defined as promoting travel to a destination over 50 miles from home. * Funded activities must report counts of people traveling over 50 miles (see attached Lodging Tax State Reporting Form). * It is hard for me to imagine that in any year a municipal pool would attract any visitors from over 50 miles away. * Maybe something like a Water World Theme Park could attract lots of visitors, but not a municipal pool. While your proposed diversion might be (barely) legal, it will almost certainly result in no increase in tourism. And it might even result in a decrease in tourism (and Lodging Tax revenues) if funds are diverted from other generally proven methods of tourism promotion. I urge you to reconsider diverting Lodging Tax Funds to support a pool. David Neuenschwander 142 Old Lindsay Hill Rd. Quilcene, WA 98376 360.765.3151 Subject: LTAC memo and letter from Commissioner Dean Hello, Jefferson County Lodging Tax Advisory Committee and Funding Applicants, As you may have heard, the County Commissioners are wanting to take a new direction with LTAC dollars, starting this funding cycle. We will be working with the LTAC Committee to find agreement on project funding. Please see the attached memo regarding new priorities. We do not take this decision lightly, but it comes from many years of uncertainty about whether print-based destination marketing was the most effective use of limited dollars. We would like to try prioritizing “destination development” instead - use these funds to better develop what we have here in hopes of providing more useful, durable infrastructure for visitors and lessen some of the negative impacts that tourism can have on locals. Events and destination marketing will still be included and considered for funding; please see the memo attached for more details. We recognize that this change may be hard on the people and organizations who have relied on this predictable funding the past many years. We encourage folks to consider how we might re-think and modernize our use of these dollars. The world is changing rapidly, particularly how people get information, and we hope that this change will be a time to think innovatively and creatively. Lastly, I wanted to let you know that I will be taking over from Commissioner Brotherton as the Commissioner on the LTAC Committee. I look forward to working with you all to try a new vision for how and what we promote to visitors here in this special place we get to call home. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, Kate Dean Chair, BOCC Commissioner, District 1 kdean@co.jefferson.wa.us <mailto:kdean@co.jefferson.wa.us> 360-301-1750 Wendy Housekeeper Executive Assistant Board of County Commissioner’s Office P.O. Box 1220 Port Townsend, WA 98368 Office: 360-385-9384 Email: whousekeeper@co.jefferson.wa.us <mailto:whousekeeper@co.jefferson.wa.us> This is a reminder that all email to or from this email address may be subject to the Public Records Act contained in RCW 42.56. Additionally, all email to and from the county is captured and archived by Information Services.